[MIJB#19]

General Manager notes: 2079 Training Camp Report
Training camp has finished, we're in preparation for the pre-season games, which we'll start at home against the Williamsburg Colonials and then on the road at the league champions Moontown Darksiders. We'll stay in the USA for about a week with training sessions at a location on the East coast, continuing with a road game at the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums and finishing at home against the Outer Banks Ospreys.

We signed two undrafted rookies to join us in training camp. Quarterback Karsten Muchnick and defensive tackle Cameron Erlitz. We also tried to bring in the best rookie long snapper Dustin Cooksey, but he decided to sign for about $250K more with the Orlando Talons. In retrospect, we should have offered Cooksey a better contract, that kid might turn out to be the best in business. Now we'll have to deal with another top 5 talent in Chris Bertolone, who's asking for a much bigger contract than what we could have tried to sign Cooksey for. The guys that did join us are strip sack specialist Erlitz and kick holder Muchnick. Both stand a good chance to make the 53 men roster.

Training camp was mediocre. With only 6 rookies in camp, the number of players that made progress wasn't spectacular. Our first round pick linebacker Craig McCorkle appears to be the real deal. He was the most improved player in training camp, according to our staff. Fellow rookie linebacker Jermaine Page, third year cornerback Amari Lavelli and rookie kicker Herb Easter were the other three guys that were reported as much improved.

Smaller improvement was reported for most of the other rookies and second and third year players, with a special mention for sixth year quarterback Ellis McAlister, who continues to improve and by our staff is graded as the 29th best player in the league at his position, with Sammy Erickson as the 24th best. We've moved on from the loss of Bennett Morris, we're going to stick with these two guys as our options. Despite some cap room to work with (about $18M), a good chunk of that will be used to extend a couple of contracts later on this pre-season. But more importantly, there's no team out there with 2 quarterbacks better than Erickson and McAlister. Maybe the Iowa Cobbers, but we can't afford the league nestor Cesar Small and their man of the future Zachery Hatcher isn't an improvement over either of our two guys.

We'll go into pre-season with 60 players signed, hopefully. We've made one offer to a free agent to join us post camp. We failed to persuade Mickey Allen to stick around for another season as our WR5, his salary demands far exceeded what we were willing to pay him in that role. He should have seen it coming with the four new receivers that we acquired in the off-season. The not to be named player should jump into a bit of a hole on our roster.

A slight disappointment in training camp were running back Walt Blair and wide receivers Dwight Clements and Rico Techen. Their progress was there, but I had hoped for more improvement. It's the second training camp where we have to list Blair as 'good progress', but not spectacular', that to me is a minor concern about his overall ability. Minor, because we've seen what he can do in the 2078 season, he's quickly proven why we had to move on from Lance Blackwell and give this kid the rock. If he stays healthy, he'll be that kind of player that gives Erickson or McAlister all the time to do their thing.

Lastly, our backup left tackle Richie Coughenour made good progress in training camp and by my staff has improved to being the third best pass blocking left tackle in the league. Quite the dilemma, given that we just gave Louie Murray a 5-year $100M contract. Coughenour is up for renewal of his contract, he's still willing to sign a new deal with us, but unless we give him playing time this season, I fully expect him to want to play elsewhere the season after. And he's unlikely to see much of that this season, if the guys we have and newly signed all-world Nicky Sherman show us in pre-season they're in good shape...